Justin Trudeau: second minister resigns from cabinet as scandal deepens

Bobbie Mccormick |Wednesday, March 06, 2019

In blow to Canadian PM Trudeau, second minister quits over scandal

True, but the new facts and arguments senior Liberals threw at Wilson-Raybould for four months past year after she told them she had made up her mind all seemed to be political arguments and threats against her keeping her cabinet post - not new legal arguments.

Philpott is a close friend of Wilson-Raybould, who herself resigned on February 12 after she was unexpectedly demoted in January.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's former principal secretary will tell his side of the SNC-Lavalin saga on Wednesday.

Wilson-Raybould said last week she was convinced her refusal to help SNC-Lavalin was behind the demotion.

"I have been considering the events that have shaken the federal government in recent weeks and after serious reflection, I have concluded that I must resign as a member of Cabinet", Philpott wrote. It's doubly, triply, quadruply damaging that she cited "lost confidence in how the government has dealt with (the SNC-Lavalin scandal) and in how it has responded to the issues raised".

Mr Trudeau has denied political meddling in an investigation into engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. But I must abide by my core values, my ethical responsibilities and constitutional obligations. "There can be a cost to acting on one's principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them". According to the latest polls, it's not working - Trudeau's numbers are collapsing, Canadians say they are following the story closely, and some 67 percent of them believe Wilson-Raybould instead of Trudeau.

Phillip joined Conservative leader Andrew Scheer in calling for Trudeau's resignation, and also echoed NDP leader Jagmeet Sing's demand for a public inquiry into the SNC controversy.

Trudeau and his officials allegedly leaned on Wilson-Raybould to reverse a decision by the director of public prosecutions to proceed with a criminal trial of SNC-Lavalin on charges of bribery and corruption related to contracts in Libya. I want to thank Jane for her service.

If convicted criminally, the Montreal-based company would be banned from receiving any federal government business for a decade. She hailed Philpott as "incomparable" on Monday and saluted her "constant and unassailable commitment to always doing what is right and best for Canadians".

In the lead supporting role of this political drama is Jody Wilson-Raybould, until recently, Canada's justice minister.

Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a Liberal legislator who is not seeking re-election, tweeted that "when you add women, please do not expect the status quo". Wilson-Raybould posts a long letter outlining her record as justice minister and noting a great deal of work remains to be done toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

His letter of resignation suggested that he'd be freer to defend his reputation - and presumably that of Trudeau himself and his other senior staff - from outside the Prime Minister's Office.

Canada's first indigenous attorney general, she was shuffled to veterans affairs in January, and a month later resigned from cabinet.

What are the political interference claims?

"It is a sad day for Canada to lose a minister with such integrity", he said in a Tweet Monday. And now we've had two in such a short time.

"There are a number of people who are incredibly anxious we are going to lose the progress we have made; and we are going to see a government led by an individual who has coddled Yellow Vesters; and who has really cultivated support from groups and organizations that he should be shunning and pushing away", Erskine-Smith said.

Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto, said the resignations speak to Trudeau's failure to connect with his own troops. They were part of this self-appointed feminist prime minister's obsession with gender balance.

October 11 - SNC-Lavalin meets with Elder Marques, a senior adviser in the Prime Minister's Office, to discuss "justice and law enforcement".

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